•Are there any extra inclusions such as breakfast, and, if so, is it a cooked or continental breakfast?

•Do you understand what room type and bedding configuration you will be getting?

•Is your reservation guaranteed? Will it be held for late arrival?

•What is change, cancellation and refund policy if you need to change or cancel your booking?

•Did credit card number you gave to internet booking service merely guarantee your room, or did they charge a deposit (or even full stay) at time you made your booking to credit card?

•You may contact hotel directly 24 hours after you’ve made your online booking, to confirm that booking has appeared in their local computer system. You may also check with them to see if booking is same as you have made in terms of room type, room rate, dates, etc.

•If you have any special needs or requirements or expectations, you should double check with hotel directly that these special service requests have been received by them and are understood and will be provided.

•Most importantly, if you prepaid any amounts to internet website, confirm that you won't be billed again by hotel directly. Remember that most internet websites are completely independent of hotels they service, and could be located anywhere in world; once they get your money; there is no guarantee that they will pass it on to hotel in time for your stay.

www.ratestogo.com (http://www.ratestogo.com) is a website that has answers to all these questions. Visit http://www.ratestogo.com/Hotels-Last-Minute/EN for last minute deals for over 5,500 global properties through a real time booking engine.

2. If a motel deliberately misspells its name, avoid it like a cash strapped relative. Y’all know types I’m talkin’ about - motels that have names like, “Thriftee Inn, “Sleepee Inn” or something else disgustingly similar. The folks running those joints want you to think they’re one thing, but, when you lay down and find that Mr. Cockroach and his family are in bed with you, it‘s too late. Hard to sleep when you’re perched up on top of a nightstand for rest of evening.

3. A “pay per hour” option is offered. No need to say a whole lot more about this, but if you still go ahead and book one of these joints you’ll find that bed in room is in real bad shape, but furniture is in near perfect condition. Go figure.

4. If place offers adult movies on their TVs, and you decide to watch one and it seems like action is occurring in a room that looks a whole lot like yours, consider writing off rest of evening, packing up, and quickly riding on down road. If you don’t, not only might you become an accidental adult film star, but you might also discover that some of these “reality based” adult films feature haints that not only shouldn’t be filmed, but probably shouldn’t even be allowed outdoors in daylight. Just my opinion, though.

And there you have it. Practical guidelines for keeping a fleabag joint out of your moteling future. I’d write more, but I’m doing this on a laptop computer out on road, and this motel I’m staying in is charging me a dollar a minute for electricity, and don‘t even ask me about eight dollar rolls of toilet paper.....